Dark Imperium
by TheMonkfish
Summary: Simeon Jaeger, a former student of Torquemada Coteaz, becomes embroiled in a Chaos plot to overthrow the Imperium from within. A desperate race against time at the close of the 41st Millennium ensues, with the shadow of the 13th Black Crusade looming over the defenders of the Imperium.
1. The Unraveling

**Dark Imperium**

 **Chapter I - The Unraveling**

 **A/N:** Okay, so this is a rewrite of my 40K work, Dark Imperium, with a lot of changes and a bit of refinement. Hopefully this will make it a bit better and all you people perusing the Warhammer section on here will find it to your liking!

* * *

 _The Inquisitorial Journals of Inq. Simeon Jaeger, Entry February 3rd 999.M41_  
In my years as an Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus I have encountered many horrors. I have seen the hordes of Khorne, savage and brutal to the last and with a relentless appetite for warfare. I have seen the monstrous servants of Nurgle, all-devouring, pestilent, and with shocking resilience, and the terrifyingly agile and merciless warriors of Slaanesh. I have even been a witness to the most terrible of our myriad foes, the vile legions of Tzeench, who rend the very fabric of reality. In these annals, I shall reveal to you the struggle of myself and my compatriots against an insidious cult, led by a most unexpected demagogue.

* * *

On the orders of my master, the great Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz, I was tasked to pursue a rogue psyker through the depths of the underhive of Epsilon Regalis. This planet had been the site of an infamous purge by the famed Witch Hunter Tyrus many years ago, but evidently some of the heretics had slipped his net. The prey was elusive, I would give him that, but unluckily for him the servants of the Emperor are relentless. I engaged his men in a firefight among the hissing machinery of an automated manufactorum.

As I dived through a heavy steel door already opened, a renegade fired at me with his autorifle, but I took cover behind a stack of ceramite armour plates which absorbed his fire. Unhooking a grenade from my belt, I tossed it into the heretic's hiding place, where it detonated and blew him to smithereens. Another dead heretic plummeted from the catwalks above, cut down by rapid fire from my Storm Troopers, who advanced on the enemy from above. Two more secessionists waited ahead, with makeshift barricades of twisted metal and bolted plates of steel, but I dared not perform a frontal assault for they were entrenched with a heavy stubber.

"Kaelen!" I signalled with my vox-link, "Deal with that gun nest!" Brother Kaelen of the Crusader Order, a figure clad in ornate blue robes and wielding a fearsome Power Sword, had served with me for a good decade. Positioned on the catwalk, he gestured to a storm trooper, who threw the crusader his grenade launcher. Kaelen launched a volley of frag charges onto the gun position from above, and with a deafening roar of Krak charges and an explosion of metal fragments the two enemies were swiftly dealt with. I ran past the burnt out stubber nest and kicked down the door to the manufactorum proper, sighting the mastermind behind this scheme, the rogue psyker himself! His twisted form, clad in desecrated flak armour, moved swiftly through the clanking machinery and hissing pipelines. Taking aim at him, I moved to pursue.

"Give yourself up, heretic, and your death shall be swift and painless!" I roared. The traitor replied with a hail of lasgun fire, prompting me to duck for cover behind a whirring turbine housing.

"Die, Imperial dog" growled the renegade, firing again. I cursed loudly as his fire kept me pinned in my hiding place.

"Kaelen, Garent, I need support now!" I exclaimed into my vox-link. The psyker, hearing my with his warp-enhanced senses, panicked and threw a roiling burst of psychic lightning in my direction, which I evaded barely, casting aside my overcoat as it became ignited by the conflagration of warp-lightning and hellfire. Not a moment too soon, Garent sprang through a window with a cacophony of breaking glass and the yells of surprised workers from outside.

"Eat this, you traitorous bastard!" he roared. The ex-guardsman blasted away with his storm bolter, striking the heretic and obliterating both his lasgun and the arm that held it in a gory detonation. Garent Blackthorne was once a decorated sergeant of the Elysian Drop Troops, and joined my forces after being left for dead when a mission against the Tyranids went badly. The renegade fell to the ground with a scream of agony, bleeding heavily from his tattered stump of an arm. Drawing my trusty combat blade, I approached the downed enemy and proclaimed,

"You are a vile heretic, and by Inquisitorial edict I declare you Excommunicate Traitoris. Die now knowing you have sinned against the righteous Emperor, and pray for salvation before your judgement". The psyker scoffed.

"Death to the false Empe..." I silenced his heresies with a blade to the throat before he could complete his curse. Garent approached me.

"Sir, the heretic's fellows have been dispatched in accord with the plan, but we captured one alive and have prepared him for interrogation". I grinned; Garent and his men were as efficient as always.

"We shall question him at once" I declared, "sweep the area for more evidence then return to the ship".

* * *

Several minutes later I arrived in my ship's brig for the interrogation. The man we had captured wore the garb of an undercity ganger, but on his arm was tattooed a sigil of Chaos. My interrogator and apprentice, Lukas Byron, was waiting for me. A man of both learning and battle, Byron had a sharp mind and even sharper aim with his trusty laspistol. He arrayed a great variety of tools upon the table, preparing to begin the grim process. I turned to the subject.

"Who was your employer?" I asked calmly. The rebel spat on the floor.

"Our glorious lord shall soon come upon thee!" He wailed, "the old ways will fall, the Dark Imperium shall rise and all shall be under its dominion!" I sighed. The subject had clearly been touched by the madness of the warp, making this far more difficult.

"Do not make this hard on yourself, we can inflict such terrors on you, that you could not imagine" I said, my voice deadly calm, "your death will be clean and painless should you confess".

"I...the Dark Imperium!" he hissed, "our lord is mighty, and you shall see him not!"

"Mental conditioning?" mused Byron.

"Quite possibly" I replied, "take him to Caius for a Mind Scrub, if he won't tell us willingly". Two uniformed Navy Armsmen in my employ entered the room on my command and took the handcuffed cultist away.

"He spoke of a Dark Imperium, what could that mean?" questioned Byron. I looked at the prisoner. Upon his neck was a curious tattoo. It bore a resemblance to the Aquila, but had a draconic aspect, as if warped by unknown powers into something far more sinister. A cult symbol, perhaps?

"Search local databases for this symbol, it may hold the key to this plot" I ordered. Byron nodded and left the room. This may be a false lead, but I could not ignore a possible threat of a secessionist, heretical movement of Chaos worshippers gaining a foothold in this sector. I would have Erwin, our data analysis technician, search relentlessly through Inquisitorial records for cult symbols matching this one.

* * *

Several hours later, Erwin called my staff to the command deck of our ship, the _Angel Bullet_ , for a briefing. Erwin was an elderly man who had served under Torquemada Coteaz for many years, and my mentor had assigned him as my aide. Tapping a few keys on the console in front of him with his slender fingers, he brought up a holographic display of the Formosa Sector.

"Here, is Epsilon Regalis, where we are currently in orbit" he indicated, pointing to a glowing sphere, "and here, is the Dagon system, where we maintain our standing base". Then, he pressed another key, and several planets lit up red, laying a crimson trail to Dagon.

"These planets are ones where recent cult activity has been quelled by associates of Lord Coteaz, and many of them displayed the iconography of our heretical captive" he continued. Caius Mille, a thin, gaunt looking man in hooded robes, stepped forward.

"I have concluded a Psychic Mind Scrub of the prisoner" he said in his hoarse voice, "he was a lowlife gangster from the underhive of Epsilon Regalis, recruited from those destitute surroundings into the cult, by a man known only to him as 'the recruiter', who was some manner of leader".

"Any idea of how we can find this recruiter?" I asked.

"Before the subject expired from the mental trauma, I was able to tear a location from his brain" continued Caius, "an asteroid belt on the far outskirts of the system, beneath notice in this distant edge of Formosa".

"Shall we investigate?" asked Mason, our shuttle pilot. A seasoned veteran of the Imperial Navy, Mason was a well built man with a chiselled face and short, cropped black hair.

"Yes, that would be prudent" I replied, "we should approach the area and perform a scanner sweep before acting, however".

* * *

 _The Inquisitorial Journals of Inq. Simeon Jaeger, Entry February 11th 999.M41_  
Asteroid fields are horrific to navigate, any helmsman will tell you so. As we approached the edge of the belt, our scanning picked something up. A particularly large asteroid gave off strange readings.

"Erwin, what do we have?" I asked our tech expert.

"Preliminary scans indicate a network of tunnels within the asteroid, but there's no telling what you'll find down there" replied the aged magus. I grimaced. Tunnel fighting was always bloody and difficult.

"Byron, prepare an away team in the shuttle bay, close quarters equipment" I instructed over vox-link. As I entered the bay, I saw my team arrayed before me.

Garent stood at the head, only his black stubble, mouth, and chin visible below the visor of his enclosed Elysian helmet. When we deployed, the helmet would be completely sealed for void combat. Byron's blonde crew cut was concealed beneath an armsman's void suit, and in his hands he carried his laspistol and trusty sword. Beside him was Kaelen, his robes traded for a void suit, but his power sword and Storm Shield at the ready. Mason stood by the shuttle, ready to provide us with a short ranged jump, and next to him were half a dozen Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, silver carapace armour adorned with the seals of Lord Coteaz and the Formosa Sector.

After loading onto the shuttle, Mason launched from the shuttle bay. From a small viewport, we could see the asteroid we would be landing on. It was marked by small craters, but on closer inspection, concealed arrays of communications equipment could be faintly seen. Mason's expert hand guided us in, and the interior of the shuttle depressurised as the door slid open.

The storm troopers carried weapons suited for close range combat, shotguns and flamers aplenty. Erwin had calculated the optimal breach point. Amidst the cratered, dull grey rocks, we made our move. One of the Storm Troopers, Silver, a heavyset recruit of the Schola Progenium, planted a breaching charge.

"Prepared, take cover!" came his warning over the vox. Our party sheltered from the blast behind a rocky outcrop as the charge blew a hole in the asteroid's surface. A quick look out saw that it had exposed a tunnel within, empty of any signs of life.

Upon entering the tunnels we saw the extent of the corruption. The walls were marked with sigils of the Dark Gods and blasphemous scripture was written on many a surface.

"We must purge this unholy place" I growled, "burn the heretic!" We advanced down the tunnel, weapons armed and ready for resistance.

Erwin warned us over vox-link "there are heat sources in the next room, possible hostiles". I readied my weapon of choice, a pair of Bolt Pistols, and signalled Silver to use a breaching charge. The veteran Storm Trooper clamped the device onto the reinforced door and our team took up position.

"Engage!" came Silver's signal. The charge went off, a focused blast demolishing the ceramite door and sending a cloud of debris into the room beyond. The cries of panicked cultists from beyond were heard, followed by a burst of confused lasgun fire from the enemy. The infra-visors of our void suits allowed us to see clearly in the confusion, marking out five hostiles armed with basic lascarbines.

Silver opened up with a shotgun, catching one enemy in the shoulder and throwing him back, heavily wounded. A second and third hostile were cut down by the roaring fire of Garent's Storm Bolter, and the remaining two opened up wildly with their carbines. Kaelen advanced slowly into their line of fire, catching incandescent bolts of energy with his broad shield, which absorbed them harmlessly. As the heretics realised their attack was ineffectual, they closed in to attack with bayonets, but Kaelen swung his sword in a great arc, cleaving the two down in a single sweep.

With the resistance quelled, we checked the room. Across the chamber was another door, not reinforced, but marked with an eight-pointed star. I signalled to Garent, who booted the door in, revealing the enemy within.

A table was arrayed in the style of a war room, and a huge flag hung from the ceiling. The flag of the Dark Imperium! The arch-heretic lounged on his command chair.

"Ha, I knew the Imperium would find me eventually" he scoffed, "but know this dog of the emperor, my master shall tear you down and bring your empire to ruin!" Silver knocked him unconscious with a riot maul, ending his monologue.

"Take him to the interrogation chamber" I said, signalling two Storm Troopers to grab the downed leader, "we shall search this place for any leads". Upon investigation of the chamber, Byron found a store of shipping manifests and other documents that needed to be examined. Other information was yielded from the command console of the cultists, and we found a star map detailing possible strongholds for the cult, as well as a letter from a 'Mr. Bern', who seemed to be some sort of arms dealer. Bern was the most obvious link, so we would investigate him first.

* * *

Upon returning to our ship, I tasked Erwin with extrapolating Bern's location from the data we had recovered. He was the next link in this conspiracy, I was sure of it, and if we found him we could trace this plot to its source. In the meantime, Byron and I would interrogate the heretic commander. I entered the interrogation chamber to find Byron had already prepared the prisoner and layer out the necessary tools. I picked up a neural scalpel and showed it to our victim.

"If you want a painless death, you'll tell us what we need to know" I threatened, "who is the leader of the Dark Imperium?" The cultist was unfazed.

"Fool!" He cackled, "he is beyond your understanding, and he shall end you and your corpse emperor!" I sighed.

"Well we'll try something simple" I replied, "who is Bern?" The heretic responded,

"He is a rogue trader, but you shall never find him, my master has already hidden him away!" He broke down into an uncontrolled fit of insane laughter. I signalled to Byron, who tapped a key on the vox link, summoning Caius to the chamber. Before long, the gaunt psyker entered the room. Fear was evident in the eyes of the heretic at the approach of the ominous-looking man.

"Begin the process of extracting information" I ordered Caius. The psyker stepped towards the captive, his hands crackling with psychic power.

"Wait!" cried the panicked prisoner, "I...I can tell you where Bern is, please, don't let him near me!"

"That wasn't too hard, was it?" I grinned, "tell us everything you know!"

After a lengthy explanation from the prisoner, in which he detailed Bern's dealings with his cult cell, and their mission to Epsilon Regalis to steal military equipment. He did not know the exact location of the arms dealer, but his information gave us the lead we needed, and Erwin began his deduction. As the prisoner had cooperated, we gave him the mercy of a quick death, a laspistol shot through the head.

After a few hours of scanning, survey, and elimination, Erwin had found Bern's likely location, and we made all speed to locate the arms dealer before our enemy could conceal him from us.

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, I hope that was something worth reading. I'd like whatever feedback I can get from you all, so please if it's not much trouble, leave a review?


	2. Badlands Rumble

**Dark Imperium, Chapter 2 - Badlands Rumble**

* * *

 _Explorator Ship "Ark Mechanicus",_ _February 15th 999.M41_

Enginseer Sylbiric, understudy to the great Belisarius Cawl, ruminated on the current situation as her mechanical legs carried her down the gunmetal corridors of the mighty ship _Ark Mechanicus_. Her rust-red robes covered her armoured hide, and her face was obscured mostly by a hissing gas-mask. The events that had transpired on that Ork-infested world had shaken the crew of the grand vessel to their cores, with the discovery of those arcane relics buried beneath the surface. The Tech Priest passed through a whirring door, the portal shaped in the image of a huge cog, and into her workshop. Here, she tended to her pet project, the Thallaxi warriors that would form the vanguard of their coming engagement on Cadia. The hulking cyborg shock troops were clad in thick armour of the toughest metals known to man, armed with arcane instruments of the Machine God's fury.

"Thallax Initiate Alpha Ignis, report" came Sylbiric's grating voice through her augmented vocal box.

"As you command, Techpriest" came the growled response from within the Thallax's featureless helm, "All units are operating at peak efficiency, we await your orders".

"Good" replied Sylbiric, "let us hope that it will be enough..."

* * *

 _Malefactors Warband Strike Cruiser "Spear of the Eye",_ _February 21st 999.M41_

I am the instrument of Chaos undivided, and mighty are my footfalls. I am the scion of Horus, descended from his great lineage, forged in his image, and I wage war in his legacy's name. I am Khatep, lord and commander of the Malefactors, the true Sons of Horus, the bearers of the Warmaster's own legacy into this dark time. At my back are the hordes of my warband, myriad and savage. The Tip of the Spear, in accordance with the doctrine of mighty Horus, my Terminators, the ranks of the Tactical Squads, with the deadly bolter in hand, and the unrelenting fury of the Assault Squads, who shall tear the foe asunder. Heavy Support squads bring to bear the thunder of Horus' wrath from their guns, while our Outriders encircle the enemy. In my hands I bear a mighty mace, the weapon of choice of our forefather, trained to fight in his style, the disable the enemy with crippling strikes before the finishing blow. Above the war, my fleet shall rain down Horus' fury on the foe, flames and death from the cold dark of the void.

"Warpsmith Graal" I announce, signalling a power-armoured giant with a nest of whirring mechadendrites at his back, "set a course for Cadia, it is time to make the name of Horus feared across the galaxy once more!"

* * *

 _The Inquisitorial Journals of Inq. Simeon Jaeger, Entry February 16th 999.M41_

Our search for answers lead us to a lawless world on the frontiers of Imperial space, beyond the Formosa Sector, covered in vast deserts and inhabited by tough, wild folk. Here, the Emperor's light was nowhere to be found, and his servants had no authority. We landed in a discrete shuttle painted dull black, with no identifying marks. Accompanying me were Silver and Byron. To disguise our Imperial allegiance, we wore long overcoats that allowed easy concealment of weapons, and also hid our armour from view. Silver was now unhelmeted, allowing me to see his scarred face clearly, the violet eyes of a Cadian framed by his brown hair. A short distance from our landing site lay a hamlet, where it was believed Bern was located. Our initial surveillance showed no obvious hostiles, and no sign of the Dark Imperium.

"Alright, it looks clear from here, we should move in and search for Bern" I murmured. My two companions nodded in acknowledgement and we entered the hamlet, a collection of wooden houses and shops, low tech, but not too primitive. A few locals wandered around but they payed little attention to my party. We approached what appeared to be a saloon. I pushed open the wooden double doors and we entered.

Inside the saloon, filled with smoke and the stench of alcohol, a handful of natives sat about drinking various alcoholic beverages. I approached the bartender.

"Do you know a trader named Bern?" I asked him. The man's eyes widened.

"The rogue trader?" He said worriedly, "he's nothing but trouble, stay away from him". At that moment the doors of the saloon flew open with a loud crash. Half a dozen figures wearing loose-fitting robes had entered, their garments marked with simplistic sigils of Chaos.

"You, by the bar!" Growled the front intruder, "surrender at once!" The locals slowly inched their hands towards holstered pistols. I had to cause a distraction somehow. Noticing a bottle of some strong alcohol upon the bar, I seized it and hurled it at the intruder. He instinctively fired on the projectile, but the red hot las-burst ignited the alcohol and doused him in burning ethanol. All hell broke loose. A local drew a knife and sprang at me, but I elbowed him in the face and smashed a bottle over his head, rendering him unconscious. Byron tripped one of the hooded cultists into an armed native, then smashed a flimsy wooden chair across the downed heretic's back, leaving him down for the count. The locals and the cultists opened fire on each other and the air was filled with las-fire, prompting my allies and I to vault over the bar and take cover, with Byron pulling the bartender down into cover with us as we went.

"I thought you said this would be easy!" shouted Byron over the din of the bar's patrons and the Chaos troopers brawling, as the bartender took cover behind a barrel.

"Haven't you noticed by now?" remarked Silver, "it's never easy, there's always some bloody cult or xeno raiders waiting to jump us as soon as we let our damn guard down!" While his words were amusingly truthful, there were more pressing matters at hand, like how we were going to escape this tavern brawl. A quick glance over the bar showed that three cultists still fought on, and five bar patrons still stood.

"Alright, sweep them out!" I ordered, and Silver vaulted the bar, drawing his riot baton. A cultist lunged at him, but he sidestepped and clubbed his attacker in the gut, causing the heretic to double over. As he stumbled, one of the bar patrons, a muscle-bound woman in the outfit of a PDF trooper, tackled him, throwing him out through one of the bar's flimsy windows with an almighty crash. Silver gave the woman an thumbs up, and she grinned back.

Two cultists remained. One was caught in a fist-fight with a local, until Byron drew his laspistol and shot the heretic clean through the head, dropping him. The final one turned to flee, but the PDF woman shoulder-barged him, sending him flying through a wooden table, smashing it to pieces and rendering him unconscious.

"Check the cultists" I instructed. The PDF woman approached us.

"Hey there, you guys certainly caused a ruckus!" she laughed, "name's Luna, and yourself?"

"Jaeger" I replied, "tell me, would you fancy a new line of work?"

"Anything better than policing this backwater shithole" she smirked.

"Fall in then" I said, "we can always use a hand".

"These guys aren't Dark Imperium" Byron observed, "look, no draconic markings, just the eight pointed star".

"Yes, there's no obvious Dark Imperium iconography" I replied, "they could be proxies, or mercenaries though, I'll send images to Erwin for examination". If we could identify these cultists it would make our job of unravelling the mysteries of this planet much easier. We stepped out of the saloon we had just wrecked to see a crowd of locals gathered before us. One, obviously the ringleader, stepped forward to speak.

"Who do you people work for?" He asked, "and why did you fight the Brotherhood?" I decided it would be better to keep our Imperial allegiance secret for now.

"We're mercenaries" I responded, "those men started a fight so we took them down". The ringleader nodded in approval.

"The Brotherhood have been nothing but trouble ever since that Fawkes guy brought them here" he grumbled, "they're just a bunch of thugs!" This Fawkes character seemed to be at the centre of this affair. We would need to question him to identify how far the cult had reached.

"Where is the trader Bern?" I asked. The ringleader had the same reaction as the bartender.

"Bern is in the compound off to the east" he said hurriedly, "but the Brotherhood have him under heavy guard, you won't get to him!" I cursed under my breath. If the Brotherhood was involved with Bern they could well be allied with the Dark Imperium.

We took our leave from the town and I called for reinforcements. We would need more than four of us to deal with Bern's guards.

"You're not really mercenaries, are you, boss?" asked Luna.

"Not quite" I replied, "I'm Simeon Jaeger, Ordo Malleus".

"Inquisitor?" she said, "wow, I'm gettin' attention from the big shots now!"

"Quite" I smirked, "stick by us and do good work in the Emperor's name and you'll find the profession quite rewarding".

* * *

Mason's shuttle landed at our drop zone, a dusty plain to the east of the hamlet. Out poured a dozen Inquisitorial Storm Troopers led by Garent and Kaelen.

"Bern is holed up in a compound to the east of here" I addressed my troops, "it's very likely there will be a Chaos presence there, possibly allies of the Dark Imperium". Erwin's scans had shown a network of caves that ran directly under the enemy base. We would use them to gain access, hopefully without detection.

However, our approach was not so simple. As we approached the site we would enter the tunnels through, advancing slowly through sandy dunes and rocky outcrops, one of the storm troopers was felled by sniper fire. My men and I sprinted for cover, diving to the ground or behind rocks.

"Enemy sniper, on the ridge!" yelled Garent. Sure enough, I could faintly make out the glint of a scope reflecting the harsh sunlight atop a large boulder to the west. I gestured to a trooper with his own sniper weapon. The storm trooper took up his position and awaited a signal.

"Kaelen, bait him" I ordered. The crusader broke from cover, and his storm shield protected him from the sniper's attack, the high velocity round deflecting harmlessly off into a dune. My own sniper returned fire, slaying the Brotherhood marksman. As if on cue, Brotherhood men riding swift steeds galloped into view and fired wildly on us with pistols from horseback. The cultists wore the same loose robes as our early adversaries, and wielded simple laspistols and wicked scimitars. We returned fire, downing a few with disciplined Hellgun volleys, but the rest reached us and set upon us with their scimitars. Luna unseated one of the hostiles as he rode down on her, and catapulted him into a dune, where he was riddled with las-fire, while Garent took out a cluster of riders with a frag grenade. The remaining attackers were now caught up at close range, where their mobility was less of a deciding factor. Clearly these cultists were inexperienced warriors. A cultist swung at me, but I quickly dived to the side, causing him to lose balance and tumble from his horse. I drove my boot into his chest and shot him through the head. With the last couple of riders shot down as they tried to flee, our attackers had been destroyed and we reached the entry point. The boulder where the enemy marksman had once lain, splattered with his blood from our sniper's clean headshot, concealed an entrance.

Garent and Silver hauled the rough stone boulder aside, revealing the entrance to the subterranean network we would use as our point of entry. The tunnels stretched on further than we could see, hewn out of the bedrock by mechanical means long ago. The storm troopers were equipped with low light vision goggles to see in the dim caverns, and we advanced for several minutes through the dim catacombs with no issues. After that while, we came upon a gargantuan pair of steel doors. They were emblazoned with the symbol of the Dark Imperium!

"Sir, that room is shielded" came Erwin's voice over vox-link, "there could be anything in there and I wouldn't pick it up". Without warning, the doors began to hiss and slide open, their armoured bulk clanking aside slowly. My men and I concealed ourselves as best as we could in the shadows as a trio of heretics emerged.

"Lord, the men we sent to the town have been dispatched by unknown assailants" hissed one of the traitors, an emaciated cultist in tattered robes, "and our riders are not reporting in". The foremost one, dressed in black carapace armour with a sinister hood, replied,

"No matter, the plan still moves forward as anticipated". I decided now was the time to strike at these foes.

"Not today, heretic!" I roared as I sprang from the shadows and blasted the nearest enemy with my bolt pistols. The slim cultist caught the brunt of the blast, going down in a shower of gore. The leader turned and fled, pushing his second minion into my path. I bowled over the cultist with a swift elbow to the throat, and executed him with my pistol, and chased after the leader, followed by my storm troopers. The fleeing traitor hurled a frag grenade at my men, driving us into cover momentarily under a hail of metal shards, and allowing him to dive into a nearby skiff and escape, the small craft igniting its engines and speeding away as we fired at it.

"Shit" swore Garent, "he's gonna go get backup now!" I scowled, but we still had to find Bern and Fawkes. We examined the shielded room. All around were vehicles and mining equipment, and many racks of weapons from across the galaxy, both ramshackle, and military grade. They were building an arsenal! Before I could investigate further, a door across the chamber clanked open and a horde of cultists stormed in, opening fire with lasguns. They were poorly armoured and their lack of aim belied their inexperience, but they came in great numbers.

"Take cover!" yelled Kaelen, and my men and I did as such, returning fire from our hiding places and slaying a few of our attackers. A cultist with a flamer tried to rush us, but Garent's storm bolter cut him down before he could reach us. Heretics were mowed down by high-energy bursts as the storm troopers returned fire on their attackers, doing the bloody work they were trained for in the Schola Progenium.

"We need to push through them!" roared Luna, firing a shotgun wildly around the edge of her cover, a Goliath mining truck. I nodded in agreement, and signalled to a trooper with a Grenade Launcher, his name was Dozer, if I recalled correctly.

Dozer loaded his launcher, and let loose a volley of high explosive into the packed ranks of the betrayers, scattering the disorganised levy. The screaming heretics, driven into a terrified frenzy by the Krak charges, made easy targets and were scythed down by our firepower.

"We need to find the heart of this complex" said Byron, "the rogue trader is our main concern here". I nodded, then directed our forces to advance. We stormed down a steel corridor and kicked down a door, blasting a huddle of Dark Imperium soldiers who resided within, catching the heretics off guard and slaughtering them, then saw that this was far bigger than we had previously thought. The chamber we had entered was enormous - you could have easily fit a small Titan in it. In its centre was a vast pit, with a gargantuan mining elevator attached to steel rails, which lead down into the depths. The elevator was big enough to hold a platoon of Imperial Guard, so my men and I fitted on with ease. Kaelen pulled a control lever, beginning our descent into the heart of this dark place.

"There's no telling what they're hiding down here" I advised my men, "so stay sharp!" The storm troopers checked their grenades, and reloaded their Hellguns, preparing for the worst. At last, the elevator ground to a halt. We were standing in another massive chamber, but now the true horror of the enemy plan was revealed.

Across the wall opposite our entry point was placed a huge cross-like superstructure. Impaled onto it was a Lord of Change, one of the vile daemons of Tzeench! It was held in such a manner that it appeared to be crucified, and a great lance was protruding from its chest. An aura of...wrongness projected from the feathered beast, as if the very world was rejecting its presence. Even a trained Daemonhunter such as myself was filled with a great unease at this terrifying creature's appearance. My Storm Troopers and retinue, hardened as they were, still showed signs of great worry and even fear upon sighting it. However, the Daemon seemed to be dormant somehow.

At that point I noticed the cult leader who had fled earlier. He had shed his armour and wore dark robes.

"Greetings Inquisitor" he spoke with an arrogant drawl, "it seems you have reached the point of no return". I scowled. This heretic was in collaboration with a greater daemon, so he would evidently be powerful, but we might be able to slay him before he could retaliate if we caught him off guard.

"You cannot prevent the inevitable" he sneered, "the Dark Imperium shall rise, and all will burn". He snapped his fingers and cultists poured into the room, emerging from doors, behind crates, and up ladders from below, but they also dragged struggling locals with them.

"Today our lord shall receive a great blessing!" Chanted the cult leader, "begin the sacrifice!" The cultists set upon the screaming civilians with knives and axes, butchering them and watering the ground with their blood in honour of their dark gods. I roared in blind fury.

"Kill these warp-spawned bastards!" I growled, and the storm troopers sprang into action. Before we could fire on the cultists, the cult leader extended a hand as if to catch us, and I found myself paralysed and unable to continue my attack. My forces were similarly beset by the heretic's unholy power.

"The great daemon lord has granted me a portion of his power" taunted the cult leader, "I am stronger than a thousand pitiful Inquisitors!" I was forced to watch, helpless, as the citizens of this world were slaughtered before my eyes. The cultists hacked them apart with gusto until none remained alive, then the cult leader released my forces, but not by letting us down. He exercised a psychic blast and hurled us across the chamber, killing a few of my storm troopers from blunt trauma, and stunning the survivors.

"My power is unlimited!" He cackled maniacally, "you cannot stand against Chaos!" Before he could continue his rant, I fired my bolt pistol at him, detonating his head and instantly killing him. His arrogance had been his undoing, as was so with many of the followers of Chaos.

"So, I cannot stand against Chaos, eh?" I replied, "well, I think I just did!"

"Chaos has many faces" chuckled a voice behind me. I turned around, but received a fist to the face and fell unconscious.

* * *

I awoke in some sort of containment pod, and saw through the murky glass of its front side that dozens of other pods lined the room I was held in. Each pod was connected to many cables and tubes, and a combination of archeotech and daemonic sorcery seemed to power them. A man in the armour of the Dark Imperium approached my pod. He carried an archaic firearm with an ornate wooden casing, but it seemed to be far more than that. Daemonic energies coursed about its working parts, and its barrel gave off a malevolent glow.

"Inquisitor Jaeger, soon you will know the true nature of our scheme" he said softly, "too bad you won't live to tell anyone about it". I recognised his voice - he was my attacker from previously!

"Ah, where are my manners?" He said, "I am Sebastian Fawkes, the commander of this little base". So this was the arch-heretic of this place, the man who had bought the Brotherhood to this world, and presumably the Dark Imperium, as the evidence now overwhelmingly suggested the Brotherhood was merely a front for the Dark Imperium.

"Let this ceremony begin" be announced, "activate the blood pods!" The containment vessels hummed with dark energies and the archeotech that controlled them hissed and clanked to life. Across the hall, I saw a captive PDF trooper in his pod. He screamed as the dark power of the pod drained him of his lifeblood and pumped it through the pipes attached to it. Before long, the imperial soldier was reduced to a desiccated husk, with all his blood taken by the heathen machinery of the cult.

"More blood for the rebirth of our master" roared Fawkes, "let it flow to him, and speed his resurrection!" I was sickened by what I saw. The guardsman's blood was piped to The Lord of Change, and the daemon drew the red fluids in, glowing with unholy energies. Realising my men and I were next, I struggled against my bonds, managing to break loose from the shackles, but I was still trapped in the blood pod. Quickly checking my inner pockets of my coat, I noticed that the heretics had not removed my hidden weapon, evidently having not noticed it. I drew my compact stub-revolver in the cramped confines, and shot through the glass of the pod's front.

"What?" Yelled Fawkes, "you dare to interrupt this sacrifice?" He raised his unholy weapon, but I followed up my escape with a shot to his torso that blew him backwards and into an archeotech generator, where he was electrocuted and fell still. The cultist operating the blood pods screamed and ran, but I blasted him before he could make good his escape. I blew open the pods the other captives. Only a handful of storm troopers remained, but my retinue was still intact, and half a dozen troopers from the planet's PDF were rescued.

"We must escape at once" said Kaelen, "lest we be sacrificed for their blasphemous plot!" We stormed out of the sacrificial chamber, and headed for the mining elevator. As we passed through a holding cell block, full of destitute looking captives, I noticed an emaciated man in the garb of a rogue trader.

"Are you Bern?" I asked him. He nodded weakly.

"Bring him with us" I ordered, "get any of the prisoners who can walk too, they may be of use to us". Luna helped the weakened man to his feet, with Storm Troopers and rescued PDF troopers helping as many of the captives as they could, and we soon returned to the mining elevator.

"What of the daemon?" murmured a trembling PDF soldier.

"Kaelen, contact Lord Coteaz immediately, we shall have this place purged and consecrated by Banishers as soon as possible" I ordered. The Crusader nodded.

"Now, let us leave this unholy place..." I muttered, triggering the elevator, and beginning our ascent.

* * *

 **A/N -** Again, I'd like as much feedback as possible, so please drop a review in if it's not too much trouble?


	3. Ghost Atlas

**Dark Imperium, Chapter 3 - Ghost Atlas**

* * *

 _The Inquisitorial Journals of Inq. Simeon Jaeger, Entry February 20th 999.M41_

We had another lead to the source of this heresy; the rogue trader Bern and the information he no doubt had on the Dark Imperium. While Bern was still recovering from his treatment by Fawkes and the Brotherhood, we would have to wait; he would be unlikely to talk to us if we treated him as they had done. Meanwhile, I would consult with Erwin on what else we had learned from the Brotherhood facility. We met at his desk on the ship's bridge, covered in blinking data-slates, reams of paper, and files for his study.

"We recovered a number of clues from the subterranean base" Erwin informed me, "firstly; this data-slate was ripped out of the hostile information banks". He produced a slightly dented piece of computer hardware from a drawer in his desk. It was a basic data-slate, simple but hardy technology used by almost all colonists on frontier worlds.

"We've been able to recover some information from it; the Lord of Change they had buried there had been in place for nearly three thousand years, having been sealed there by a conglomeration of banishers when they realised it was too powerful to outright destroy". This at least shed some light on why the Dark Imperium had been present on that world.

"And the Dark Imperium learned of this, and came to free it?" I asked.

"Not quite" replied Erwin, "The Brotherhood, a local cult, found the facility built to house it by accident, and they moved in, but the Dark Imperium only recently arrived, suggesting they are actively assisting other cults across Human space".

"So, could we check for instances of local cults suddenly gaining increased power and plot a possible map of Dark Imperium activity?" added Byron, who had just approached.

"That might just work" replied Erwin, "if we can get an idea of exactly where the Dark Imperium is operating then we can narrow down the area we have to search, and maybe get an idea of where they have a base of operations".

"And the Daemon?" asked Kaelen, who had approached us just then.

"Word just came through from Lord Coteaz" replied Erwin, "the facility is currently being swept and cleansed, the Daemon shall be banished back to whence it came".

All of our efforts would now be concentrated on this task while we waited for Bern's recovery. I dispatched agents to local capital worlds to search for such records, in the hope of finding a pattern buried in the data. We also found some more insight in the Inquisitorial records; an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus called Arkei had, several years ago, encountered a cult using the name of the Dark Imperium in a system called Ajax Beta. The cult had been dug in deeply, but Arkei was able to root them out in time.

"Inquisitor Arkei's records show a surge in local cult activity in the systems around Ajax Beta" I briefed my team, "it occurred just after he found the branch of the Dark Imperium on Ajax Beta itself; if what we previously asserted about the Dark Imperium being a facilitator organisation, this could be a lead for us to chase up".

We had also received an analysis report from our Tech Magus on the weaponry and armour used by the Dark Imperium and Brotherhood forces. They were on par with Imperial Guard issue equipment; this suggested either wealthy sponsors or a traitor within the Administratum. If Bern, the arms dealer, had supplied them, then we would have to work out where he had acquired them; but it was more likely he was simply a middle man, a gun runner. The weapons that the cultists we had encountered in the underground facility had been a mixture of military-grade and rough frontiersman weapons, and the cultists in the asteroid base had been equipped with simple but effective Necromunda-Pattern lascarbines. To the end of tracing these weapons, I contacted Maxim Locke, another of Coteaz's students. He had cultivated many contacts in the Administratum over his Inquisitorial career, which aided him greatly in his investigations.

"Simeon, good to hear from you again" came Locke's voice over the Vox Link, "what can I help you with?"

"Good to talk to you too Maxim" I replied with a smile, "I was wondering if you could trace some weapon batches for me..."

* * *

 _The Inquisitorial Journals of Inq. Simeon Jaeger, Entry February 26th 999.M41_

The word had just come in. Abaddon had sallied forth from the Eye of Terror to launch his 13th Black Crusade. All Imperial forces from across the galaxy who were unengaged had been summoned to the Cadian Gate to man the defences. To that end, we had been directed to a new location.

The Nest was a vast Inquisitorial space station, located in dark space between Armageddon and Cadia. It was a stopping place for the infamous Black Ships, a training ground for Storm Troopers, and a nexus for the Inquisition's activity in the sector.

As the _Angel Bullet_ docked with The Nest, a party of Storm Troopers arrived to greet us. They wore black and red carapace armour, with the sigils of the Ordo Hereticus, and the crest of Vostroya, a world that had long produced exemplary regiments of the Imperial Guard.

"Inquisitor Jaeger, we represent Lord Inquisitor Nicholas J. Dahl" said the leader, "assemble your forces in Hall 5 on Deck B2, we shall instruct you from there".

* * *

 _The Nest, February 26th 999.M41_

In Hall 4, Deck B2, forces of the Imperial Guard had been gathered under the command of Nicholas J. Dahl, to sally forth to the Cadian Gate. Ten thousand Guardsmen of the Vostroyan 45th Shock Rifles stood at attention as the Inquisitor Lord entered the room. Fifty thousand other members of the 45th were located on the station, in various halls.

Dahl was a tall, well built man wearing black robes. His face was shadowed by a long hood, and at his waist he wore an ornate Power Sword. The 45th were inducted to his service, and had been for twenty years now, they had trained under him, were armed by him, and served him and him alone. Some of his colleagues in the Ordo Hereticus thought it suspicious that he effectively had a private army, but Dahl payed them no heed. His purpose was greater.

"Prepare to move out" ordered Dahl, his voice booming loud, "on this day, we shall bring salvation to our brothers under fire, and death to our enemies! This station shall be the bastion from which we launch our counter-attack, and we shall be unstoppable!"

The massed ranks of guardsmen yelled in approval, then turned as one to the left, marching in perfect step through the doors that connected the hall to the attached troop ship. Dahl watched them, filled with pride at the perfect drill his forces had achieved.

"May the best of luck be with you, my sons and daughters" he murmured, "for you shall surely need it".

* * *

 _The Inquisitorial Journals of Inq. Simeon Jaeger, Entry February 27th 999.M41_

"I don't see why we're waiting here" grumbled Luna, "we should make haste to Cadia, and join the fight!"

My allies and I sat around a council table set up in the middle of our assigned hall, discussing the current situation. The vast hall contained several makeshift facilities deployed by our forces, from accommodation to an armoury, and our command post.

"We must be cautious" urged Kaelen, "the traitors are yet to play their full hand, we would do best to not get caught off guard".

"I'm with Luna" added Garent, "we need to get in there ASAP, the people of Cadia are dying while we sit and wait!"

"She's right..." muttered Silver, "but we can't rush into the Gate without proper preparation". Dozer nodded in agreement.

"To look into the Eye unprepared is certain death" rasped Caius, eyes looking down, "with the hordes of the enemy abound, even entering the system would invite our destruction..."

"What do you think sir?" asked Dozer, turning to me.

"As much as I am loathe to admit it, we're horribly outgunned by the Chaos forces" I said, "we need reinforcements to cover our entry into the Cadian system". Byron nodded and stood up.

"Within a few days, if my calculations are correct, our forces here will be massed enough to break through the Black Legion's blockade" he said, "until then, smaller forces are being despatched to reinforce outlying systems, in case the Despoiler attempts to launch a surprise attack".

"Very well, this meeting is adjourned" I said, "prepare yourselves in whatever way you feel fitting, for a great battle lies ahead".

After the meeting had dispersed, I went to speak with Luna. I found her field stripping a Lasgun at the armoury.

"What's up boss?" she asked, "I assume this isn't a social visit?"

"Just checking in, don't worry" I said with a small smile, "you seemed a bit off at the council meeting, just thought I see if things were okay".

"I'm just annoyed we're waiting around while Cadia burns..." she sighed, "it's my homeworld, you know? My regiment was assigned to that backwater world you found me on as a PDF force, to hold the frontier...was always kinda boring there. That's why I'm so pissed off, it's my home that Abaddon is torching and I'm stuck here when I could be fighting it..."

"I'm sorry..." I said, "I'll push for our deployment as soon as I can, but just...stay on your game, okay? We'll need you at your best to take back Cadia".

"Don't worry boss, I'll fight like a damn monster to take that place back, I owe my people that much at least" she said, steeling herself, "I've got your back, if you've got mine".

I nodded in approval, then left Luna to her work.

After that time of peace, we began to notice something amiss. Something was off about the troops being brought in to reinforce the Cadian Gate.

An entire regiment of Mordian troops had arrived on The Nest earlier that day. At first, nothing seemed wrong, but on closer inspection, there was something...off about them. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Shortly after that, I received a message from Locke. The weapon shipment had been traced back, and half of the order had been issued to...the 66th Mordian Infantry. The regiment that had just arrived on the station. We moved to investigate.

"Here is Hall 8, Deck B3, where the 66th are based" indicated Erwin on a holographic map of the station, projected above our council table, "should you wish to investigate surreptitiously, there is a ventilation shaft that runs directly across the area".

And that was how I found myself crawling through a cramped air duct alongside the halls of The Nest. The close confines, gunmetal and riveted together, were claustrophobic and uncomfortable. Behind me crawled Garent and Luna, who had insisted on accompanying me. In addition, one of the prisoners we had rescued, a slender Astropath named Solana, followed us. Her dark blue eyes watched all that surrounded her with attentive gaze, peering out from beneath the green hood of her robes.

As we came to the hall where the 66th were located, I pressed myself up against a grille through which I could see and hear within. An officer of the 66th stood at the head of his forces, delivering a speech.

"Men, today we shall deliver a great victory for our master" said the man, a hawkish looking fellow in dress uniform, "we shall sally forth to Cadia, and advance his plans a thousand fold!" The soldiers cheered, and a banner was unfurled. The banner of the Dark Imperium!

"Well, that's less than encouraging" hissed Luna.

"Damn traitors!" growled Garent, "they've snuck in right under our bloody noses!"

"Onwards, to the troop ship!" ordered the officer, "we march to victory!"

The massed ranks of the traitor guard strode forth, doors across the chamber sliding open with a hiss to allow them passage. The forces of the enemy boarded the attached troop ship in their thousands, ready to go to war.

* * *

 _Frigate "Burning Blade" Approaching The Nest,_ _February 27th 999.M41_

The Inquisitor knew his mission. His was the duty, the burden of taking the weight of mankind's sins on his shoulders and cleansing them from existence. The thankless task of excising the rot of heresy from the Imperium with a scalpel's edge, precise and calculated in his methodology, and direct in his action. His trade was in secrets, lies, and death, in equal measure. He was the silent guardian of the human race, unknown, unseen, unthanked, but nonetheless there, standing firm against the treacheries of Chaos and the machinations of the great enemy, for as long as he lived, heresy could not hide from his piercing gaze. The tools of his trade were many and varied, from the fleets of the Imperial Navy to the disciplined forces of his homeworld, the warrior clans trained from birth to be perfect soldiers. Those he could not crush under the weight of his mighty Ogryn shock troops, he could silently kill through the arts of the scores of assassins and saboteurs in his employ. His philosophy was a simple one; cut off the head of the serpent, and it will die. To this end, he and his followers would track down and kill the leaders of heretical uprisings, demagogues, rogue cardinals, corrupt governors, and more, for that was the lethal currency they dealt in. There could be no compromise, only the elimination of all threats to mankind would suffice.

The Inquisitor and a conclave of his most trusted warriors and servants, numbering in the hundreds, had come to The Nest to join the battle on Cadia. The Agrippina system, on the verge of Cadian space, had been identified as a place where darkness dwelled, and it would be purged with fire and fury.


End file.
